"The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil" to stream weekly on TUF.tv beginning this Sunday; elimination round fights revealed

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

If you're interested in seeing the UFC's first international edition of The Ultimate Fighter, the debut episode of "TUF: Brazil" will be made available at TUF.tv this Sunday, complete with subtitles for North American fans.

Filming recently wrapped for the season, which features coaches Wanderlei Silva and Vitor Belfort guiding 16 middleweights and featherweights throughout the show. Sunday's first episode features 16 elimination fights to pare the field down to 16 fighters.

The show will air in Brazil each week on Globo TV following Brazil's edition of the reality series Big Brother, so start times will fluctuate depending on when that show ends each week. However, North American fans can watch every Sunday night at 11:30PM ET on TUF.tv. Fuel TV is also expected to air the series, though it may not be aired in conjunction with the broadcasts in Brazil.

Here are the 16 elimination round fights that have been revealed for Sunday's debut (via MMAJunkie.com):

Middleweights

* Leonardo Mafra Teixeira (5-0) vs. Samuel Trindade (6-1)
* Daniel Sarafian (7-2) vs. Richardson Moreira (3-0)
* Francisco Drinaldo (10-1) vs. Charles Maicon (8-1)
* Delson Heleno (23-6) vs. Gilberto Galvao (19-4-1)
* Sergio Moraes (6-1) vs. Thiago Rela (3-1)
* Cezar Ferreira (4-2) vs. Gustavo Sampaio (5-1)
* Joao Paulo de Souza (8-4) vs. Thiago de Oliveira Perpetuo (8-1-1)
* Renee Forte (7-1) vs. Fabio Luiz Vital da Costa (9-0-1)

Featherweights

* Alexandre Ramos (5-0) vs. Hugo Viana (5-0)
* Giovanni da Silva Santos Jr. (10-1) vs. John Teixeira (13-0-1)
* Marcos Vinicius Borges Pancini (19-3-1) vs. Pedro Nobre (10-0-1)
* Rodrigo Damm (9-5) vs. Fabricio de Assis Costa da Silva (14-1)
* Rony Mariano Bezerra (10-3) vs. Dileno Lopes (8-0)
* Anistavio Medeiros (12-7) vs. Rafael Bueno (7-1)
* Wagner Campos (11-3) vs. Fernando Duarte Guerra (10-1)
* Godofredo Pepey (8-0) vs. Johnny Goncalves (4-0)

Penick's Analysis: This season in Brazil, subtitles and all, may end up being more interesting than the current live season on TUF for a few reasons. For starters, there's a more realistic possibility that we may get some legitimately untapped talent out of this season, whereas TUF in the U.S. has provided mostly preliminary card fodder in recent years. Then there's intrigue of seeing how the Brazilian fighters handle living together in Brazil while filming as opposed to what we've seen in the TUF house in Vegas. Also, Belfort and Silva have a history together, and may come off as more charismatic than Dominick Cruz or Urijah Faber have been thus far on "TUF: Live". And I'm not saying "TUF: Live" has been a bad show through two episodes, in fact I've highly enjoyed what I've seen thus far, but I'm still very much intrigued about "TUF: Brazil".

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_12830.shtml

Jai Bradney  Ebenezer Fontes Braga Chris Brennan Marcelo Brito  Rob Broughton